


Through the Commonwealth

by Wildstar239



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:20:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23208400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wildstar239/pseuds/Wildstar239
Summary: A new world is thrust upon an unfortunate soul after being frozen for more than two centuries. Will he survive the war torn and ruined wastelands, or will he perish to the horrid changes of the Commonwealth? Only time will tell.
Relationships: Robert Joseph MacCready/Sole Survivor





	Through the Commonwealth

**Author's Note:**

> Few things to note;  
> -This won't follow the game 100%, but will still have some of the game elements. Certain character's dialogue may or may not be the same to what they say in-game as well  
> -Some mechanics will stay the same, while others might not or may not even be included

_Cold..._

_So cold..._

.

.

.

Everything came back to him quickly, stale air filling his lungs and causing the man to cough. Outside, there seemed to be a blaring of an alarm or something accompanied by a voice, yet both were fairly muffled by the pod door in front of him. Across from the pod was another that was sealed, a small amount of blood on the floor at the front. No, that can't be right... Could it? Did what the man see moments earlier just a dream? The man in the pod quickly slammed the door with balled-up fists, trying to trigger the lock to release, or anything as long as the pod would open! The sound of that gunshot still lingered in his mind, along with the yell of pain that followed after.

He had to get out- he knew what he saw was fake!

Finally, with a hiss and the pressure inside dropping, the door opened up as melting frost dripped down to the floor and onto the inhabitant. The man fell to the floor seconds after, wincing at the impact with the practically drenched concrete floor. He then stood up and looked at the pod ahead of himself. He **had** to still be in there, there was no way he was gone! Cooper rushed over, peering through that window on the pod. 

Nobody was there.

His breath hitched in his throat as he stared into the empty container. So it was all true? Then... Who was that man that took his brother away? It was no one Cooper recognized- that man wasn't even wearing anything Vault-Tec related! Did he somehow get in? What happened during the decontamination process? Multiple questions raced through Cooper's head, none of them having any clear answers. Resting his head up against the pod, Cooper let out a shaky breath and shut his eyes. His head was spinning from all of this. As he opened his eyes, the man took notice that the blood underfoot was dry and not wet, but there also appeared to be some of the crimson leading towards the door he had entered with his sibling earlier. So they went that way...

Cooper pushed himself off of the pod, making his way to the door before freezing. A terminal? Maybe that'll have something important, something that could tell him what was going on! He quickly walked over, typing a few keys to get it started up.

_**Welcome to ROBCO Industries (TM) Termlink** _  
_**Thank you for choosing Vault-Tec!** _

**[Cryogenic Array]**  
**[Life Support]**  
**[Pod Occupant Status]**

... What? 'Cryogenic Array'? 'Life Support'? Cooper stared quietly at the screen in shock; so they weren't decontaminating them? Vault-Tec was just freezing them! But why? He continued to search through the different tabs, including the ones that gave information about the other occupants of the pods. Deceased, cause of death: Asphyxiation; Deceased, cause of death... They were all the same besides his and his brother's- Both were labeled as unknown. There was also an empty pod, but it didn't matter if it was ever used to begin with. He stepped away from the terminal; It wasn't much use anymore. Cooper silently cursed to himself. He needed to find a way out of here, and to get back home for that matter.

Pushing on ahead, the man passed through a sliding door before going down the corridor. Immediately to his left was another sliding door. Cooper decided to open it, peering into the room before being greeted of the sight of more cryo-pods. The vault dweller entered warily- Was there anyone alive in one of these? He made his way to the end of the room where another terminal stood, waiting to be activated once again. He was greeted with the same message as the terminal back in the room he came from, but the inhabitants were different. Checking their status, he sighed. No one here was alive either; everyone in the pods suffered asphyxiation as well. Would there still be someone working here? Deciding to move on, Cooper left the room and went back down the hall.

Another door stood at the end of the hall with one to the right of it, yet this one was locked. He went to the door on the right instead, heading down the stairs. Cooper took in a breath before speaking, the stale air filling his lungs as he called out, "Hello? Hey, is anybody here?!" Movement appeared in the corner of the man's eye, his attention snapping to it in hopes that it was a living person. 

Wrong. Dead wrong.

It was a giant roach skittering across the window, not someone moving past. With a yelp, Cooper quickly jumped away from the window at the disgusting sight. Why the hell are there giant roaches?! He decided now would be a good time to continue moving, but not without grabbing a security baton that was on the ground. Maybe he could use it? A new room appeared on his right, Cooper heading in to look around. Another terminal! Maybe this will have some insight...

_**Welcome to ROBCO Industries (TM) Termlink** _  
_**Clearance: VAULT-TEC SECURITY** _

**[VAULT 111 SECURITY INSTRUCTIONS]  
[Operations Protocol Manual]  
[Security Logs]**

He looked through the tabs in the terminal, reading each one for as much information that he could get.  
' _... Designed to test the long-term effects of suspended animation..._ '  
' _... Intervention is only permitted if greater than 80% of the resident population has perished..._ '  
So this was just some sort of experiment? What kind of people would do such a thing? He got to the logs, and noticed that about less than a year had passed since the bombs had fallen when he was put into the sleep. If he was in here for a short time, then why were the roaches huge? Standing up from the seat in front of the terminal, Cooper left the room and through the next set of doors

Cooper roamed through the halls before arriving in a new room, yet he froze when he saw the giant roach skittering about along the floor ahead of him.

Gross.

He got into a crouch and moved slowly ahead, preparing the baton to strike the bug. However, the roach took notice to the man and suddenly flew at his face! Cooper let out a yell of surprise, swinging the baton out of instinct. It connected with the roach with a solid _crunch_ as it fell to the ground, clearly dead after that blow. It wasn't a pretty sight though, with whatever was inside of the roach now on the outside and on the floor. With a sickened grunt, Cooper entered the canteen. There was a terminal in here too! He decided to take a look, considering the last one had some pretty good information on it.

Cooper took a seat after picking up the fallen chair, starting the terminal up.

_**Welcome to ROBCO Industries (TM) Termlink  
VAULT-TEC RECREATION TERMINAL** _

**[OVERSEER MEMO]**  
**[TOP TEN]**  
**[Play Tape]**

Oh? Cooper clicked on 'Play Tape' and was a little surprised to see 'Red Menace' was playing. He closed out of the game however; there wasn't any time to play games right now. Cooper popped the holotape out of the terminal though, pocketing it for the time being. Maybe he could play it once he figured out what was going on. Leaving the canteen, the man went through the doors that seemed to lead into some sort of generator room. The machines seemed to spark however, electricity humming and striking everything around it. Fortunately, there was a cockroach between the generators that got zapped, so that was one less bug he didn't have to worry about.

Unfortunately, two more seemed to come out of nowhere within the room, quickly skittering towards Cooper. Why the hell were these things so aggressive? Either way, they were an enemy that had to be taken care of before it dealt some damage. While Cooper was dealing with one of the roaches, however, the other managed to jump up and bite and scratch at the man. He winced slightly- He definitely was _not_ expecting a hit from one of those things to hurt. Dispatching the first one before going to the second one, Cooper moved back to get some distance before swinging. The baton connected with the exoskeleton of the roach, the blow swiftly killing the insect. 

He went to the other door, yet froze when he saw the skeleton that was on the floor. It wore a ruined vault suit, torn at multiple places and missing both the sleeves and the pant legs. Cooper stared in disbelief; If this was someone who was inside of the vault along with the others, then wouldn't they have exited a pod more than a year ago? But then that would mean that they didn't go into a pod in the first place! What was going on?

Cooper finally pulled his eyes away from the skeleton sprawled out on the floor, going through the door and up a small patch of stairs. Two more roaches stood at the top, taking notice of the man and flying at him. Another few swings and both were dead as well. So many damn roaches... Entering a new room, Cooper came to a halt as he spotted a small amount of stimpaks upon the desk ahead, going up and picking them up. Another skeleton lay on the floor in a toppled over chair, a terminal on the deak in front of it with what appeared to be a handgun of sorts and some ammo boxes scattered about.

With a small grimace, Cooper carefully stepped around the skeleton as to not disturb it, putting away the baton and picking up the gun. A 10 mm pistol was now in his hands; hopefully he didn't have to use it whenever he got out of this cursed place. His attention turned to the terminal afterwards, the man shaking his head to get the thought of using the gun on anyone out of his mind. Crouching in front of the machine, Cooper started it up as the green letters showed up on the screen

_**Welcome to ROBCO Industries (TM) Termlink  
Clearance: Overseer Eyes Only** _

**[VAULT 111 OVERSEER INSTRUCTIONS]  
[Cryolator]  
[Operations Protocol Manual]  
[Overseer's Log]  
[Open Evacuation Tunnel]**

The overseer's terminal? This should have a lot of information about what's going on! However, the tab on a 'cryolator' did seem interesting to Cooper, so he took a look at it. Some sort of new weapon the overseer made; It seems like they had a bunch of time to work on it. Quitting out of the cryolator tab, he clicked the tab to unlock the evac tunned, considering that there was no other way out if he didn't. Cooper stood back up, taking notice of the lockroom with some supplies and a case of sorts after watching the sliding door across the room open up. Walking over, he stopped as he entered the room and looked at the case.

Oh?

Curiosity was beginning to get the better of the man, him going to the case to check it out. Inside appeared to be some sort of gun, probably the cryolator that the terminal was talking about. He realized it was locked, however, and with a rather strong lock at that. With a faint whisper to himself promising to come back later, Cooper left the lockroom and the overseer's room.  
Almost there.  
Almost out of this hellhole.  
Almost back **home**.

Immediately entering the hallway, there on the wall was another accursed cockroach. God, how many of these things were there? Cooper lifted up the gun and aimed, firing at the bug and quickly dispatching it. Soon after that gunshot rang out, multiple roaches came around the corner and charged at Cooper, some even flying at him. The man fell over with a yell at the swift attack, trying to mostly block his face from those sharp legs and jaws. Adrenaline kicked in suddenly, the vault dweller releasing a yell that was mixed with both fear and strength before he practically punched one of the bugs off of himself. There were still plenty of them swarming him, but knocking one off gave him the chance to grab the baton from his pocket and swing wildly around at them.

Most of the swings connected with the roaches, knocking them off and away. Cooper stood back up, finishing off the rest of the roaches that didn't die at the initial blows before finally relaxing. He definitely was roughed up a bit after the fight, scratches littering both his hands and some parts of his face that he couldn't shield fully. Thankfully the vault suit saved him from having his body damaged. The man shook himself up with a shudder as he picked up the pistol. The feeling of giant roaches crawling all over your body was a horrid feeling. Hopefully he didn't have to deal with a swarm like that again...

Well, he was somewhat correct with his wishes when he stepped the the final door that led to the vault entrance. Two roaches came at him instead of a swarm like earlier, yet this time Cooper was ready to deal with them. Aiming the pistol once more, the man fired at the bugs. One was shot, but he missed the second one. He fired two more times before the third connected, the bug bursting from getting shot. Cooper lowered the pistol afterwards, looking around. Another vault dweller skeleton, but there seemed to be two scientists as well. Were try trying to get out too? Walking up to the console to open the door after maneuvering around one of the skeletons, Cooper stared at the console. The button was blocked by a cover. 

He looked down for a moment as he felt his foot hit something, taking note of the machine that seemed to have the a part of the skeleton's arm inside. Cooper gently nudged the arm out before picking up the pip-boy, inspecting it before putting it onto himself. It was a snug fit around his left wrist. He pressed the softly glowing orange button that had the words 'power' beside it, listening to the machine whir and click to life. The screen was rather dirty however, so the man cleaned it off with his sleeve to avoid getting finger prints all over the screen. The image of a walking man showed up on the screen soon after, Cooper watching him move before deciding the scroll through the pip-boy. A map, a radio, even a list of the things he was carrying and wearing!

This machine definitely was a keeper.

Cooper looked through it a bit more before looking back up, finally realizing that he could open the vault with this! Removing the little plug from the back of the wrist machine, the man plugged it into the console ahead of him before the cover over the big red button opened up. He then took the plug and put it back into the pip-boy, quickly pressing the button and moving back. So close to getting out of this place!

Alarms blared to life as the room was lit up with a yellow glow after the primary lights had shut off, a feminine voice coming on once again, "Vault door cycling sequence initiated. Please stand back." He heeded those words as the large machine ahead of him moved forward and towards the gear-like door, pulling it out of the wall and turning it as the door moved to the right. The vault dweller quickly ran over to the gates that blocked the way, the ramp sliding forward and into a bright light. A little too bright- Cooper had to shield his eyes as he heard the ramp come to a stop. Pushing through the yellow gates he had entered in the beginning, now exiting, Cooper passed under the bright light and saw the elevator ahead of him.

Practically rushing down the stairs and almost tripping, the vault dweller stopped at the elevator door. It was opening slowly, the sound of screeching metal echoing in his ears. That didn't matter- He was getting out of this place and going back home! He knew it was most likely destroyed after the bombs fell, but what of Codsworth? Was he knocked out of commission by the blast as well? No matter; Cooper will find out later. He stepped onto the elevator once the door had finished opening, looking around. The voice came once more, "Enjoy your return to the surface. And thank you for choosing Vault-Tec." 

It was ironic really- Cooper didn't exactly have a choice between choosing Vault-Tec or not, that salesman really got him into a corner. But at the same time, Cooper was rather glad he came to sign him up. He didn't want to perish when the bombs fell, although he felt horrible that the salesman never got in, as well as the other people that lived in Sanctuary Hills.

The elevator rising shook the man out of his thoughts for a moment, him looking up as the elevator went up towards the surface. Doors above opened up, sunlight glaring through and now lighting up the area that Cooper stood. He quickly covered his eyes once again due to how bright it was- How long has it been since he's seen the sun? The elevator finally reached its destination;

The surface.


End file.
